


Sunlight and Shadow

by ClockworkDinosaur



Series: cosmic love [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Background/Implied Vrisrezi, F/F, First Meetings, Light Angst, Light and Darkness, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 22:57:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8552782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkDinosaur/pseuds/ClockworkDinosaur
Summary: Angels and demons were never meant to fall in love. Too much was at stake, too much could go wrong. Heartbreak was said to be inevitable.But there were fools in every generation.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I did this as a celebration because my Rosemary blog (imaginerosemary.tumblr.com) reached 300 followers, with about 270 of those following in the 20 days after The Wedding which is fantastic imo
> 
> anyways, i got the prompt kinda wrong and i've never written an angel/demon thing? but i hope this is enjoyable!

It wasn't meant to be this way.

Angels and demons did not fall in love. Of course it wasn't unheard of, there were fools in every generation, but the whispered stories passed between young angels in the night like contraband never ended happily.

Hopelessness. Ostracization. Damnation.

The fluttering in Rose's heart didn't cease when those stories came to mind unbidden. She didn't stop the demon, so soft and careful with her touch, from caressing her face with such gentleness that she was convinced she would burst into tears right there.

The demon's black eyes glittered, but not with the malice that Rose had been taught to expect. They glittered with something familiar, something she saw passed between her own mothers in times of happiness. Something she was told demons were incapable of feeling.

Love.

And angels help her, she was looking back at her the same way.

 

They were never meant to meet. Kanaya was told that angels knew nothing but contempt for demons, that she would be slaughtered by a holy rain of fire the moment that she stepped out of her place.

But she didn't listen.

The sunlight above beckoned to her and she was powerless to deny it. After countless years she would feel the warmth on her skin, chase away millenniums of chill that had bitten her bones and frosted her skin.

She stepped out into the sunlight and sighed. Frozen air left her lungs and she pulled in a breath of warmth, sweeter than she could have imagined. Her horned head tilted towards the sun almost involuntarily, eyes closing as she exposed every inch of skin towards the light.

She felt she could stand there forever as she was, a stone statue revering the sun for all of eternity.

The sound of feathers nearly drove the coldness back into her and her eyes shot open.

The angel hovered off the ground, glowing white eyes like fire against warm brown skin. Orange robes fluttered around strong limbs, stirred by the air pushed by incandescent wings. Those wings beat the air with musical precision and kept her afloat above Kanaya.

Her first fleeting thought was that she didn't mind being killed by the personification of sunlight, and that such a death would in fact be preferable to running back to where she belonged.

She didn't move, and aside from her wings keeping her suspended, neither did the angel. They stared at each other silently and, both were surprised to realize, curiously.

Minutes passed without difference until the angel beat her wings and launched herself away, the sky swallowing her whole.

Kanaya took a deep breath, turned, and made her way back home. The sunlight on her back felt just as nice as it did on her face as it wrapped itself around her.

 

Rose sat on the cold ground by the forest-surrounded cave. She didn't know what brought her back, though she halfheartedly tried to convince herself it was a sense of duty, to smite the foe her kind had been fighting for an amount of time unknowable.

She knew it was really because the demon, so calm in the face of an enemy, had intrigued her. Having never seen a demon in person, let alone so close, Rose had no idea what to expect. Maybe a snarl, brimstone and hatred thrown at her as soon as her presence was known? Certainly not a curious and strangely accepting expression. It was too familiar, too relatable on a creature she had been told was incapable of kindness or mercy or even independent thought.

Rose waited in the sunlight and was not surprised when the same demon girl emerged from the cave, blinking in the sunlight. When her eyes met Rose's she hesitated at the mouth of the cave for only a second before stepping out towards her.

“Hello,” the demon said, and Rose was surprised to hear that her voice was as smooth as silk and strong as metal, unafraid of the enemy before her.

Though Rose _had_ done her best to seem nonthreatening. She had no weapons, wings tucked into her back so she would seem as small as possible. She didn't want to scare the demon girl away.

She couldn't rationalize that. She clearly was not there to fight.

The demon seemed to be in a similar state of nonthreatening neutrality, the black and green dress she wore light without the weight of daggers or any other weapons on her.

Rose watched as the demon sat a few paces in front of her, her solid black eyes measuring Rose up in a way she felt she should have been uncomfortable with. Instead, Rose did the same thing.

They studied each other unabashedly, and neither felt as uneasy as they should have.

“You are a demon,” Rose said after a while, breaking the silence.

“And you, an angel,” the demon replied. Rose nodded.

“I'm supposed to hate you,” Rose said.

“Do you?”

A pause, then Rose shook her head. “I feel that I don't even know you. How can I hate someone I know nothing about?”

The demon blinked, black lips parted in a look of genuine surprise. “You are supposed to, you said it yourself. And I am supposed to hate you as well. That is a rule as old as time.”

“Indeed. But I don't think either of us listen to any rules presented to us,” Rose pointed out.

“True,” the demon agreed. “I'm not supposed to be out here at all.”

“Nor am I,” Rose said.

“You're not?”

Rose shook her head. “My mothers are protective,” she said. “I'm not supposed to leave our realm at all. They don't know I'm out here.”

“Nobody knows I'm here either,” the demon admitted. “Maybe it's not so safe for us to...” She trailed off. What were they doing?

“Shall I leave?” Rose asked.

“No!” the demon said quickly, eyes wide. Both were surprised by how adamant she was.

“Okay. I can't stay for much longer though, so sate my curiosity: what led you out of your realm in the first place?”

The demon hesitated, looking at her hands as they fiddled nervously in her lap. “I wanted to see the sun. I wanted to be warm for a little while. I wanted to see how bright sunlight is.”

Rose tilted her head. “A creature of night drawn to sunlight.”

“Yes, well, I've never been an adequate creature of night,” she admitted. “I'm not fond of the cold or darkness like the others.”

“Is it strange for an angel to admit that she isn't so fond of the light? That the shadows hold so much mystery that beings like me seem to shun?” she asked. “The angel of light drawn to darkness and a demon drawn to light. What a strange pair to find each other.”

“Very strange.”

They studied each other again before Rose closed her eyes and sighed.

“I'm afraid if I stay much longer I'll be found out. Will you be here tomorrow?”

“Yes,” the demon answered without hesitation.

With a satisfied (and admittedly relieved) nod, Rose let her wings spread and was in the air with one mighty push.

The clouds closed around her like cool velvet curtains and she sighed. The demon girl had been on her mind since she had seen her for the first time, the image of her raven-feather black hair shining in the sunlight, her lips just slightly parted and her eyes closed as she seemed to revere the sun not once leaving her head.

Demons were not supposed to be beautiful. They were angry, heartless creatures, not soft spoken and curious. They didn't nervously wring their hands or smile.

But she had. And Rose was intrigued.

Maybe she would work up the nerve to ask her name.

 

Kanaya watched the angel take off, the words that had died on her lips when her wings had spread to their full glorious wingspan spilling out as a whisper.

“I'm Kanaya, by the way.”

She stayed sitting for a few minutes longer, the sun-warmed stone and earth around her pleasant to the touch. After spending time in the sunshine, going back to the cold and all-encompassing darkness was unbearable.

But her absence couldn't be prolonged. With a bereft sigh she stood and headed back into the cave, darkness surrounding her like a shroud and leeching away the sunlight that had clung to her gray skin. Water dripped from jagged stalactites around her as she made her way deeper and deeper into the earth.

Demons were solitary creatures for the most part. Many kept to themselves, but Kanaya couldn't help but stop by the dwelling of a friend as she made her way home.

“Vriska?” she called, stepping carefully inside the cavern. The eight-eyed demon girl seemed to shake off the darkness around her like cobwebs, a fanged sneer on her lips as she crossed her arms.

“Kanaya,” she said, her tone indicating that the visit would be a very short one.

“Just came to see how things are,” Kanaya said, glancing around, then frowning towards a giggle that came from one of the antechambers. “But it seems that I've come at a bad time.”

“You think so?” Vriska said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“I'll just be leaving th-”

“Wait!” the mystery voice shouted from the other room. Another demon, eyes glowing red above razor-sharp teeth emerged, sniffing the air with single-minded determination. “Where have you been, Kanaya?”

“Nowhere in particular,” Kanaya responded. “A pleasure to see you, Terezi.”

“Wish I could say the same,” she said, then cackled. Her laugh was cut off abruptly by another sniff. “But really, you smell... different. New scents, new... _something_. I don't recognize it.”

Vriska's eyes were bright. “Where have you been meddling, Kan?”

“Nowhere,” Kanaya said shortly. “I'll let you get back to your date, my apologies for intruding.”

“If you're hiding something, I'll find out!” Terezi's voice followed her from the cavern, and Kanaya felt her dark heart leap with fear.

 

Rose hesitated by her mother's door, wings fluttering anxiously of their own accord. She didn't know what she wanted to say, but she needed advice. She tapped on the white wooden door and her mother called for her to enter.

Her mothers Roxy and Calliope, angels of void and story, were lounging, their conversation interrupted but they didn't seem upset. Calliope smiled her fanged smile and waved as Roxy stood.

“Need something?” she asked.

“Perhaps,” Rose said uncertainly.

“Is everything alright?” Calliope asked, her head tilted.

“Well... I have some questions.” She took a deep breath. “In a hypothetical situation, what would happen if an angel befriended a demon?”

Roxy and Calliope were stunned silent for a moment, then Roxy laughed.

“That's impossible! Demons and angels hate each other on sight, it's kinda hard to ask about a demon's day when they're focused on setting your wings on fire,” she said with an eye roll.

“Hypothetically though,” Rose insisted. Her mother's eyes searched her own with growing concern.

“Why?” she asked.

Rose smiled to mask her sudden fear. “Something I overheard. Just a story, I believe. I was merely curious.”

“There are a few stories about angels and demons acting cordially with one another,” Calliope chimed in, eyes bright with excitement. “They aren't well-known and many don't want to know them because they are so very depressing. In every case one or both ends up dead.”

“Oh dear,” Rose said. “Are they true?”

Calliope paused. “I don't know really!” she said with a shrug of her bony shoulders. “It's not as if there are a lot of chances for the two species to meet when not in battle.”

“You aren't going to go out and try and befriend a demon, are you?” Roxy asked with a grin that conveyed just how absurd she felt her question was.

“Of course not, mother,” Rose said. “It was just idle curiosity. Sorry for bothering you two.”

“No bother at all, Rose. If you need us whenever, feel free to yell!” Roxy called to Rose as she retreated.

“If you'd like me to tell you some of the stories sometime, feel free to ask!” Calliope said as Rose closed the door behind her.

She covered her face and groaned into her hands. _Of course_ befriending a demon could only end in pain. Tomorrow would have to be the last time they see each other. She had to end the friendship before it grew into something else.

Not that she wanted it to be something else _of course._

She felt her own face warm and groaned again.

 

Kanaya paced outside of the cave, the sunlight barely registering in her mind as she waited for the tell-tale rustling of feathers that announced the angel's presence. When she heard her, she stopped and looked to the sky. Rose hovered off of the ground, high above Kanaya's head, with a blank expression.

“Angel, I need help,” Kanaya said.

The angel looked caught off-guard. She landed, her feet touching the ground silently and her wings tucking against her back.

“Rose,” she blurted. “My name is Rose.”

“Rose,” Kanaya whispered, the name sending a not unpleasant shiver down her spine. “I'm Kanaya.”

When Rose repeated her name in an almost worshipful tone, Kanaya felt her heart leap for the second time in twenty four hours. It took all of her self control not to reach out and stroke Rose's face.

When her heart got itself under control, her face went dark.

“Rose, there is a problem.”

“Indeed,” Rose said sadly.

“I believe my trips to the surface may have been found out,” Kanaya said in a shaky voice. “I don't know what will be done to me if it is discovered that I was in the presence of an angel and did not fight.”

Rose looked terrified. “You won't be... Nobody will hurt you, will they?”

With a sigh, Kanaya shrugged. “I suppose I could fight back against whoever attempts to harm me. I very well might hold out on my own for a while. But once word gets out, many will come after me. I am young in comparison; I've never fought angels, never been a part of a battle. Many much older than I am have, and harbor centuries-carried grudges. That I didn't exact revenge by proxy may be seen as the greatest offense,” she explained.

“This isn't fair,” Rose said.

“War never is.”

“If I leave and never return, will you be safe?” Rose asked, her voice scared despite the fact that telling Kanaya goodbye had been her plan when she had arrived.

Now she knew that she had never planned to leave and never speak to her again. Now that she was in the situation her chest ached.

“I'm not sure I'd be any safer. I'm already under suspicion,” Kanaya said. “And I don't want you to go.”

The admission hung between them, Kanaya's eyes wide as Rose's lips parted.

“I don't want to go either,” Rose whispered. “But if I'm putting you in danger I can't stay.”

Kanaya took a step forward, then another. She was closer to Rose than she had ever dared to be. She felt as if she were standing next to the sun, the light nearly blinding. Still, she didn't look away.

As if it had a mind of its own, her hand reached up to cup Rose's face, her thumb caressing the freckles that dotted her deep skin. Rose's breath hitched and her face leaned into Kanaya's hand further, her own hand reaching up to feel the rough gray skin.

Kanaya knew the stories, passed down from elder to young.

Betrayal. Heartache. Death.

Angels and demons were never meant to fall in love. Too much was at stake, too much could go wrong. Heartbreak was said to be inevitable.

But there were fools in every generation.

 


End file.
